Wall Street
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The financial meltdown and other considerations for clean energy development
Tom asked earlier what the "anarchic" disintegration of Lehman Brother’s carbon trading desk — taking place within the broader disintegration of the entire company — means in the bigger picture. And the answer, most likely, is pretty much nothing. This is true for a variety of reasons, not least among them that Lehman Brothers was […]
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Still trying to make environmental sense of the massive bailout now underway
I like to think of myself as a reasonably cynical person, at least in matters of finance. When I started reporting on Mexico’s markets in 1998, Russia had just defaulted in billions of debt. Russia and Mexico had virtually no direct financial or trade relationship, yet large investors punished Mexico anyway. (To be fair, Mexico […]
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Will New York Gov. Paterson gut the regional northeastern-state carbon cap?
New York State relies heavily on Wall Street as an economic engine. With the financial-services industry in its deepest funk since the Great Depression, New York politicians are extremely skittish about the state’s economic prospects. That’s why Gov. David Paterson has been scrambling to help prop up AIG, the wobbly New York-based insurance behemoth. And […]
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Lehman quietly shuts down its carbon-trading desk
I have no idea how to parse the long-term implications of this: Lehman Brothers shut down its carbon emissions trading desk after the bank filed for bankruptcy protection, a source close to the company told Reuters on Monday. The "source close to the company" declared the sudden stoppage "a bit anarchic." I agree! Lehman had […]
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The SEC chief fiddled while Wall Street exposed the public to billions in bailout funds
Remember the Securities Exchange Commission? The SEC got its start in the 1930s, when dodgy dealing on Wall Street triggered that massive economic meltdown now known as the Great Depression. The idea was that the SEC would impose transparency on stock markets and make sure that people actually knew what they were buying or selling. […]
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Making environmental sense of the financial storm now raging
Interpreting reports currently coming out of Wall Street is like tracking a vast hurricane as it rages its way through the Gulf and toward a population center: Conditions are way too chaotic to make confident predictions, but preparing for the worst probably isn’t a bad idea. As recently as a year ago, no one could […]